Okay, here's the deal. There's a big trend nowadays to fix up old movies and release them again. Video stores are full of "Special Director's Cuts" of Blade Runner, E.T., Close Encounters, and a ton of others. A little videotaped intro from the auteur, some extra frames of film, maybe a dash of "remastering", and you've got yourself another movie.

Unless you've been under a boulder, you know how the Right Reverend George Lucas recently had a revival at the Church of the Jedi Knight. The first movie is 20 years old, and it still proceeded to go out and kick a hole in every theatre in the country. Its well-documented "changes" were only gravy on an already perfect pile of potatoes.

Well, guess what, folks? We had ourselves another jazzed up version of a movie come out this past weekend, and not a one of us knew it! No mysterious teaser trailers, no press releases, no geeky fans in homemade character costumes lining up around the block. Nothing.

You see, friends and neighbors, a movie came out this past weekend called Murder at 1600. And, to be quite honest, this is the movie that Absolute Power was supposed to be and dang sure should've been.

The same basic plotline, the same theory, the same questions asked. But, everywhere that Power dropped the ball, Murder at 1600 runs with it. And 1600 is the better for it.

D.C. cop Harlan Regis gets the call to investigate the death of a White House employee who's found dead in the White House. Regis, played by Wesley Snipes, has to wade through red tape aplenty if he wants to get to the bottom of this case. He also has to fight the Secret Service over jurisdiction and various political movers and shakers if he wants the truthy.

Secret Service Agent Chance, portrayed by the way underrated actress Diane Lane, is assigned to work with Regis to get the "problem" solved with as much speed and hush-hush as possible. After all, the President and his kin were at Camp David when the murder occurred. They were at Camp David, weren't they? Hmmmmmm. (Instruction to reader: Raise your eyebrows inquisitively.)

Granted, this is basically a Book-of-the-Month Club thriller. The fact that it involves the mystique of the First Family is the catch here. This film exploits every executive perk you could think of; it plays on our paranoid mistrust of the Powers That Be. And it's a kickin' little flick.

Snipes and Lane work well together, and it's obvious that they both prepared to make this movie. Lane especially keeps the stereotype "tough chick" under wraps, and instead gives us a character that could easily blend in at a State dinner yet still blow a perp's head off if she had to.

The strength here, though, comes from the supporting cast. Daniel Benzali, from ABC's "Murder One," plays the White House Security Chief, and his evil whisper never allows you to relax when he's onscreen. Ronny Cox is a primo flip-flopping president. The Prez's sleazy son Kyle, played by future Disney voice Tate Donovan, is just plain creepy to watch. And we get a nice turn from Alan Alda as the National Security Advisor.

And, wonder of wonders, we finally get to see Dennis Miller in a movie where he doesn't look out of place. His Hipness plays Wesley's partner on the D.C. homicide squad. His one-liners break the tension now and then, but he's also a player in the intrigue. Maybe this will get Dennis turned into movie parts that let him just be himself and not a wisecracking psychiatrist (The Net), a wisecracking business associate (Madhouse), or a wisecracking vampire slayer (Bordello of Blood). The man is the only voice of genius in the wasteland of stand-up, Hollywood. Let him run free and he'll pay off. (On a side note: my kingdom for a good concert movie, like Pryor's first one in 1976.)